


Bigfoot Bait

by vintagemisery49



Series: Cryptid Hunters [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Cryptid Hunters, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, M/M, Mutual Pining, Some Slight Cursing, and allura can do magic, has hunk as the true mom friend he is, i mean it has bigfoot in it if you're into that, lots of friendship - Freeform, oh and keith and shiro are adoptive siblings, or supernatural hunters i guess since i plan to make it a series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 19:18:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11698200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vintagemisery49/pseuds/vintagemisery49
Summary: “So you’re suggesting Bigfoot moved into the suburbs?” Pidge asked, her brow quirked; skepticism written all over her face.“Yes!”“Who knows, maybe he finally decided to settle down and have a family,” Lance said.Keith decides that Bigfoot in living in their town and ropes his friends into helping him capture Bigfoot, for science.





	Bigfoot Bait

Keith hummed to himself as he walked home. The sun had set over an hour ago leaving his walk home blanketed in darkness, but he didn’t mind it in the slightest. There was a full moon that night and the stars dotted the sky, making it easy to spot anything around him, but Keith wasn’t too concerned with anything jumping out at him.

He shifted his bag as he turned down his street. The only reason he was out so late was due to the one and only Lance McClain.

Lance had called him, well more like begged him, to come over to his house to study for their test tomorrow in English. Lance had always exceled in everything to do with math and science but struggled in English, Keith was the opposite, so they had become study buddies in middle school and the rest had kinda been history.

Well Lance was actually more like Keith’s best friend, other than Shiro of course, but at the same time he wasn’t sure if friends-

Keith was cut off from his thoughts when he saw something move in the corner of his eye. Turning around, Keith felt his body tense up as he waited to see what it was. He was expecting something like a bunny or maybe someone else heading home in the dark at nine at night but what he saw was something even better.

It was hard to make out in the pitch black but Keith swore he could see something that looked like the outline of a really tall man, like seven foot or something crazy, and if it hadn’t been for the pale light of the moon Keith wouldn’t have noticed one key detail. The thing appeared to be covered in brown fur.

Keith’s eyes widened as he watched it go into the backyard of a house. He could hear his heart pumping in his ears as he turned around and booked it home, a wide smile on his face once he burst into his room a minute later.

Throwing his bag by his desk, Keith stared up at his corkboard covered with pictures of him with his family and friends. He promptly began to take them all down and open up his laptop, he had a theory to research.

/////

“Where’s your boyfriend Lance?” Pidge asked, not even looking up from her phone.

“M-my what?!,” Lance sputtered, cheeks turning pink, “For the last time Keith and I are not dating!”

“I’m sure Pidge didn’t mean it like that Lance,” Hunk said, trying to console his friend before he turned the same shade as a fire truck. The trio was sitting at their usual lunch table sans a familiar mullet.

“I didn’t say it with a space between boy and friend,” Pidge said, slipping her phone back into her pocket before gesturing over to the man heading over to them. “Heads up, Iverson is coming over. What did you do to piss him off this time?”

“You know for a fact I never do anything,” Lance hissed as he glanced nervously over his shoulder. “We all know Keith’s always the one pissing him off.”

“Mr. McClain,” Iverson said as he stopped at the end of their table, “Do you know where Mr. Kogane is?”

Lance inwardly groaned, why did everyone seemed to think he had a tracker on Keith. “I’m sorry Mr. Iverson; I haven’t seen him at all today.”

“Well if you see him please tell him I need to see him in my office,” Iverson said before walking off without a reply for Lance.

“And there he goes,” Lance grumbles as he watched Iverson leave before turning back and facing Pidge who had a wide smile across her face. “What are you so happy about?”

“Oh you know, just the fact that apparently everyone else seems to have the same idea that you and Keith-“

“Bup, bup, bup, stop right there,” Lance said shaking his finger at Pidge who did shut up, but the shit eating smile didn’t leave her face. “Keith is like my best friend, only to be topped by Hunk who is like a third brother to me and whom I would die for.”

“I’m flattered Lance,” Hunk said as he smiled down at his friend before his expression switched to a more thoughtful one, “But you have to admit that Pidge does have a point.”

“Betrayal!” Lance yelled as he clutched his heart. “I can’t believe you would do this to me Hunk and agree with that gremlin.” That comment earned him a kick in the shin.

“Well I mean you two are kinda close,” Hunk shrugged, “And not exactly in the way you and I are close, I mean unless you stare at me like I hung the stars when I’m not looking.”

“Hunk!” Lance practically wheezed as his face heated up.

“I’m just saying buddy, when you and Keith are together it’s like a whole different aura then when it’s just the three of us,” Hunk said, “It’s not like I’m agreeing with Pidge to embarrass you, it’s just what I’ve noticed with my own two eyes…..and maybe what I’ve seen you scribble in the corner of your notes.”

“Hunk that’s private!” Lance screeched before burying his face in his arms. “I can’t believe that my two best friends have betrayed me like this and have left me to die.”

“Don’t be so dramatic Lance,” Pidge said as she rolled her eyes and poked him in the arm. “Besides, I see Keith sprinting to the door right now.”

“What?” Lance said, his head popping up just in time to see Keith throw open the door, scanning the room until he landed on the three of them, his face softening slightly once he saw them.

“Guys, you won’t believe what I’ve learned,” Keith said, slamming his hands onto the table.

“That you’re going to have to stay after school to take the English test you missed?” Pidge asked.

“Oh crap I forgot about that,” Keith muttered as he slipped into the seat across from Lance, “But no, that’s not what I’m talking about. You guys, I’ve made an amazing discovery.”

“Is this why you’re showing up to school late?” Lance asked, taking note of the darker than normal circles under Keith’s eyes. Had he even gotten any sleep last night?

“Yes, you see I saw something amazing last night so I had to document and research everything I could to piece together my theory,” Keith explained as he ran his hand through his hair, his eyes wide with excitement. If Lance hadn’t been worried for Keith’s well-being he would’ve thought it was cute (who was he kidding, he definitely thought it was cute.)

“And what exactly is this theory?” Pidge asked leaning forward, both her and Keith had an interest in the…unusual Lance supposed, but they seemed to like different areas of weirdness. Pidge liked aliens and Keith liked obscure mythical creatures that he swore up and down were real.

“Uh not to rain on your parade or anything Keith,” Hunk said as he gave the other boy a concerned look, “But you don’t look so good, did you get any sleep last night?”

“Sleep is for the weak Hunk,” Keith said as Pidge nodded her head in agreement. “Besides, I had research to do so I could present to y’all my theory.”

“Okay, but what exactly is your theory?” Pidge asked again, tapping her fingers against the table.

“So last night when I was walking home from Lance’s-“

“Wait, you were over at Lance’s?” Pidge asked, and you better believe Lance didn’t miss the smirk that was plastered on her face. Why did she enjoy embarrassing him?

“We were studying for the English test, you guys know I’m crap at it. I need help sometimes,” Lance said, shooting Pidge a look.

“I was just making a comment,” Pidge said innocently, like she wasn’t actually the little demon she was.

“Anyway, when I was going home I noticed something that was going into the backyard of my neighbors’ house, like it opened the fence gate and everything. So at first I just thought it was someone, but after looking closer it was something,” Keith said, his eyes growing wide again as he talked about his encounter. “It looked like a super tall man, but it wasn’t a man. It was covered in brown fur, and it had these glowing eyes that remind me of an animal’s at night.”

“So what you’re telling us is-” Lance began right before Pidge butted in.

“Are you saying you saw Bigfoot!” Pidge yelled jumping up in her seat, drawing everyone’s eyes from the nearby tables to her. She shot them a glare before sitting back down.

“Yes!” Keith said, his voice only a few pitches away from a squeal. “I think due to the rapid deforestation of his natural habitat he is being forced to move closer to humanity.”

“So you’re suggesting Bigfoot moved into the suburbs?” Pidge asked, her brow quirked; skepticism written all over her face.

“Yes!"

“Who knows, maybe he finally decided to settle down and have a family,” Lance said.

“Hahaha, real runny Lance,” Keith said, giving him a blank look.

“What, you told us that it was walking into your neighbors’ yard, maybe Bigfoot is finally conforming and starting a nuclear family complete with Mrs. Bigfoot and their two point five children. Oh, plus a dog!” Lance said shooting Keith a grin, and despite his steely face there was definitely some mirth in his eyes. At least he had kind of gotten Lance’s joke.

“I’m being serious Lance,” Keith said, crossing his arms and pouting and oh boy was Lance a sucker for the pouting.

“I know you are,” Lance said, glancing between Hunk and Pidge for help but they offered none. “But it’s hard to imagine all of this without evidence.”

“Then come by my house after school and I can show you guys my board. I’m going to need as much help as I can get,” Keith said just as the bell that signaled the end of lunch rang.

“What do you need help for?” Hunk asked, looking over at Keith nervously. “You’re not planning on the like, catching Bigfoot, right?”

“What no, well, actually maybe,” Keith said with a shrug as Hunk let out a small whimper. “But first I’m going to focus on getting a picture or video of him first then capturing it, maybe.”

“Oh no what are we getting ourselves into,” Hunk whispered, only loud enough for Lance to hear. 

“Okay then Keith, meet the three of us by Hunk’s car after school and we’ll head to your place to hear you out,” Lance said as he felt Hunk’s eyes bore into him as a silent plea to be excluded from these shenanigans.

“Thanks so much guys,” Keith said as he stood up from his seat, sending Lance a particularly knee melting smile. “I’ll see you guys then.”

Pidge shot Lance a look. “Are you at least going to tell him that Iverson is looking for him?”

Shit, Lance thought he had forgotten something. “Crap, well I’m sure Keith will figure it out for himself.”

“And I thought you had a crush on that poor boy,” Pidge said shaking her head as the three of them headed to their next class.

//////

“Where the heck is Keith?” Hunk asked, glancing between his friends and the door every few seconds. He was drumming his fingers against the steering wheel; Lance could tell that he was starting to get anxious.

Before Lance could calm his best friend’s nerves Pidge butted in.

“Lance forgot to tell Keith that Iverson wanted to see him,” Pidge said, typing away at her phone. “So he’s probably getting an earful from him right now.”

“That wasn’t nice Lance,” Hunk chided as his eyes slid away from the door and towards Lance. “But what do you think Iverson wanted to yell at him about?”

“I don’t know,” Lance shrugged as he checked his phone. Keith hadn’t replied to his text. “Probably about how he’s been showing up late or something, don’t be so nosy Hunk.”

“Okay first,” Hunk said, holding up a finger, “Keith is my friend and I care for his well-being. Getting yelled at Iverson weekly is not good for your health.” Hunk held up a second finger, “Second, we’re heading over to Keith’s place to hear about his theory on how Bigfoot is his neighbor apparently, and th-“

“And third,” Pidge cried, cutting Hunk off as she threw herself onto the front console, “Hunk’s a nosy butt who will read your diary if you leave him alone in your room for THREE seconds!”

“I said I was sorry,” Hunk mumbled. “And that wasn’t what I was going to say for my third point.”

“Well what was your third point?”

“I was going to say that-“

“Oh, here comes Keith,” Lance said, pointing to the boy leaving the school, a scowl on his face.

“Do you want to change seats so you can sit with your boyfriend?” Pidge asked, fluttering her eyelashes. “He looks like he needs some cheering up.”

“Uh no,” Hunk said, sending Pidge a look. “Not after the last time you sat up front.”

“I was just trying to improve your radio,” Pidge said as Keith opened the car door.

“Yeah, well I almost died!”

“You overreacted,” Pidge said as Keith looked between the two of them, looking completely terrified of what he had just walked in to.

“Why did Hunk almost die?” Keith asked concern on his face.

“Hunk did not come close to dying he is just over reacting,” Pidge said all while Hunk talked over her.

“Pidge tried to short circuit my car while I was driving it!”

Keith looked at Lance for help. 

Lance shrugged. “It’s best to just not question it.”

“Okay, let’s just head to Keith’s place and get this over with,” Hunk said as he pulled out of the parking spot. “I have work today and don’t have all afternoon to learn about Bigfoot moving to the suburbs.”

“So Keith,” Lance asked, turning slightly to look back at Keith, “What took you so long?”

“Ugh, Iverson wanted to talk to me,” Keith groaned as he threw himself back against the seat.

“About what?” Hunk asked as he pulled out onto the road.

“I don’t know, apparently this dick has been going around school telling everyone that he was going to fight me or something,” Keith said as he glared out the window. “I didn’t even know who this kid was! And Iverson really believed that I was going to fight him!”

“Well if he threw a punch at you, you wouldn’t fight back?” Pidge asked, mirth in her voice. She and everyone in the car knew the answer to that question.

“Well yeah,” Keith said, turning to Pidge. “I’m not going to let some jerk punch me just cause he wants to.” 

“And that’s why Iverson wanted to talk to you,” Lance said. “He knows how much of a hot head you are.”

“Well it didn’t help that he was extra pissed off at me for some reason,” Keith said with a huff as he crossed his arms. He was pouting again, and Lance was a weak man. “He kept talking about how I should’ve been by to see him earlier or some shit.”

Lance could practically hear the wheels in Pidge’s head turn as she decided to throw Lance under a bus, and Lance just wasn’t fast enough to save himself.

“Well he did tell Lance to tell you to go see him once you got to school.” It was times like these when Lance re-evaluated his friend choices.

“Lance!” Keith cried, at least he didn’t look too pissed off at him.

“I forgot to since you seemed so excited to tell us about your Bigfoot theory,” Lance said, doing his best to save himself since it seemed like Pidge was out to get him at the moment. “I was just so…enthralled by your story that I completely forgot.”

Keith continued to stare at Lance like he was trying to read him, and after a good silent two minutes he let out a sigh. “It’s fine, but to make up for it you need to help me.”

“Well I was already planning to anyway so it’s no big deal,” Lance said with a shrug before realizing he had given Pidge perfect fuel for her ‘tease Lance about his gigantic crush on Keith’ folder.

“R-really? Thanks Lance,” Keith said, giving Lance a smile that started butterflies in his stomach, and judging by the look on Pidge’s face he was showing.

“So does that mean you don’t need our help or-“ Hunk began before Keith cut him off. 

“What, no, I need all three of your guys help,” Keith said. “And you’re the only one with a car so we really need you.”

“Ugh, fine. Show me your theory and if I can somewhat believe it then I’ll drive you around.” Hunk let out a loud sigh; he was apparently also regretting his choice of friends. “But that means we can’t go out until eight.”

“That’s fine, Bigfoot is nocturnal anyway.”

“So Hunk,” Pidge said, apparently deciding that she wasn’t going to try and embarrass Lance for once, “What was the third point you were going to make earlier about why you were being so nosy about Keith?”

“Pidge, please just let me live!”

//////

“So what exactly are you going to be showing us to convince us that Bigfoot is your neighbor?” Pidge asked as the four of them went into Keith’s room.

“I made a board last night,” Keith said, pointing at a cork board filled with blurry picture (of what Lance could only assume was Bigfoot), scraps of paper with Keith’s scribble all over them, and even red pieces of yarn connecting things together. Lance could suddenly see why Keith hadn’t gotten any sleep last night. 

“Wow, conspiracy theorist much?” Pidge asked, turning around to look at Keith pulling up a map of the town on his laptop.

“Look who’s talking,” Keith shot back.

“It’s too bad you couldn’t love aliens more that your cryptids, then we could’ve teamed up a long time ago,” Pidge said as she sat down on Keith’s bed.

“Not to rush you or anything, but my shift starts in forty five minutes,” Hunk said, sitting on the desk chair, “So I’d like to hear your theory before I’m involved in your crazy plan to find it.”

“Okay, I’ll make sure to make it quick,” Keith said before pointing at one of the many blurry pictures of what Lance assumed was supposed to be Bigfoot. “Bigfoot, other alias Sasquatch, has been allusive for years leaving those who come across him with only a blurry picture and a story.”

“Okay, I like how this is going,” Hunk whisper to Lance. “It’s more like a lecture than one of Keith’s sleep deprived theories.”

“However,” Keith said, moving his finger to a chart that Lance really couldn’t be bothered to read, and not because he was too preoccupied Keith talking so enthusiastically about something, nope, he just wasn’t interested in graphs, “Due to the rate of deforestation happening in the Pacific Northwest it has caused the Bigfoot population to move closer to humans, which in turns raises their risks of being sighted.”

“When are we going to get to the part of why Bigfoot is your neighbor?” Pidge asked, raising her hand as her eyes raked across Keith’s cryptid board, it seemed she was beginning to get invested in Keith’s crazy plan which meant only one thing. This wouldn’t end well for anyone involved.

“Okay, so my theory is that perhaps the local Bigfoot had taken to scavenging in human neighborhoods to make up for their diminishing food source, or they have perhaps befriended certain humans who are helping them out. Maybe they’ve been disguising themselves to try and fit in with humans,” Keith said as he pointed to a picture (one that Lance figures he had to have made himself) of what appeared to be a family of Bigfoots with clothes on.

“So are you trying to tell me that the hairy men I see around town are Bigfoots in disguise?” Hunk asked, it seemed he wasn’t jumping on the Bigfoot train as fast as Pidge had.

“No, not exactly,” Keith said as his hand dropped from the board to cup his chin. “I haven’t figured out yet what their exact methods for hiding themselves are but once we catch one I’m sure we can get them to talk.”

“So we’re going to interrogate Bigfoot?” Lance asked, doing his best to stifle his laughter. He could just imagine Keith tying whatever he thought was Bigfoot to a chair and shining one of those bright lights on it all while demanding answers. 

“I’m all in for interrogating Bigfoot,” Pidge said, a scary smile spreading across her face. “I wanna ask them if they know Nessie.”

“We’re not looking for Nessie Pidge, Bigfoot is our first priority,” Keith exclaimed, as if the possibility of all cryptids knowing each other was perfectly plausible. 

“Well once we find Bigfoot can we look for Nessie?”

“Pidge, I want you to know that we all love you, but I know I’m not going to drive you all to Scotland for you to look at a lake for hours,” Hunk said, and with each passing moment it seemed that someone was giving in to their monster-no cryptid hunt.

“Well you can’t drive us across the Atlantic Ocean,” Pidge said. “So you’d get a break.”

“Oh wow, I didn’t think of that. Man that sure does change my mind about going to another country to look for the Loch Ness Monster.”

“Well the good news is that we don’t have to leave town to find Bigfoot,” Keith offered.

“So, hold up, can you run your plan by us again?” Hunk asked.

“We’re going to talk to my neighbor first, but you don’t need to come along for that so we can just do that after you leave.”

“Okay, what parts are going to involve me?”

“Well, I plan to scout out that patch of woods on the outskirts of town to first get a video or picture first so we for sure know that Bigfoot is out there-”

“Obviously,” Pidge added, a very serious look on her face. It seemed that she had dropped the teasing quips and was actually on board with this whole Bigfoot hunt, or maybe she just wanted the opportunity to possibly interrogate a mythical creature.

“So we’ll need you, Hunk, to drive us there and you know, be the back-up in case anything happens.”

“Wait, hold up, what could happen?!” Hunk asked, his eyes widening as his head most likely filled itself with possible scenarios, all of which were outrageous. 

“Bigfoot isn’t exactly domesticated, at least not that we know of,” Keith said with a shrug. “He could be temperamental.”

“Aww, kinda like you,” Lance said. 

“Haha, maybe that’s why I want to find him, you know so I can find my people,” Keith said, rolling his eyes.

“Guys, I told you Keith made jokes,” Hunk said, pointing at Keith all while Pidge tried not to laugh.

“We know Hunk, it’s just a little amusing that you seemed to have come to believe that Keith didn’t know how to crack a single joke besides being friends with me, the pun king, since middle school,” Lance said, placing his hand over his chest.

“Anyway, back to the plan,” Keith said, a lighthearted smile on his face now, it seemed that his tenseness after seeing Iverson was finally gone. “After we get the evidence we set a trap and, well, capture him and ask some questions. Once we get the answers we’ll let them go back to their normal everyday life.”

“So you’re telling me your plan is to hang around the creepy woods at the edge of town while you, Pidge and Lance wander through them looking for Bigfoot?” Hunk asked.

“Yes.”

“And I don’t have to go into the woods if I don’t want to?”

“Yep.”

“Okay fine, I’m in,” Hunk said with a sigh. “But we have to go out after eight; I’ll pick you all up after my shift ends.”

“Thank you Hunk!” Keith seemed to be doing his best to contain his excitement, but was doing pretty poorly considering he was practically bouncing up and down.

“So, are we going to go talk to your neighbor now, or something?” Lance asked.

“Yeah, let’s go ask them if they’re married to Bigfoot,” Pidge suggested before busting out laughing.

“I don’t know if it’s a good thing for me to be leaving you three,” Hunk muttered as he stood up to leave.

“Oh we’ll be fine mom,” Lance said as he patted his best friend on the back. “Right Keith?”

“Well I always have my knife on me so it’s not like we’re defenseless,” Keith offered, patting his pocket that Lance could only figure contained his knife.

“Geez now I’m really concerned,” Hunk muttered as he shook his head. “Call me if anything bad happens or if someone ends up in the emergency room.”

“Of course Hunk,” Pidge called after him before turning around to face Keith and Lance with a wicked grin on her face. “You guys ready to go ask Keith’s neighbor if they’re a furry?”

“Yeah, just give me a sec,” Keith said as he turned back around to face his laptop.

Pidge didn’t wait a second before she was skipping to the front door, Lance lingered.

“Hey,” Keith said, glancing over at Lance over his shoulder for a second before turning back to the screen to shut down the laptop, “Are you really okay with helping me with this? You were kinda quiet during while I laid out the plan."

“What, of course I’m okay with helping you,” Lance said watching as Keith whirled back around to face him. “You’re my friend, why wouldn’t I, even if it is something as crazy as finding Bigfoot.”

“Thanks Lance, this, um, this means a lot to me,” Keith, his cheeks turning pink slightly, not that Lance noticed since he had seemed to trick himself into believing that every time Keith blushed it was simply a trick of the light.

“I figured, I haven’t seen you get this excited over something in a long time,” Lance said, rubbing the back of his neck, averting his eyes from Keith when he added, “I’m glad to see you this happy.”

“Thanks,” Keith said in such a soft voice Lance almost didn’t hear.

“Hey, maybe after we talk to your neighbor I can hang out here for a while and help you out with the test, you know, tell you what’cha gotta know.”

“Thanks, that would be great.”

“Cool, cool.”

“Hey losers, hurry it up I wanna start this Bigfoot hunt, you can flirt later!!!”

//////

“Can you two stop acting so awkward?” Pidge asked as she glanced between Lance and Keith had put a safe three feet of space between them. “I was just joking.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Lance said, inside however he was dying over the fact Pidge just couldn’t seem to keep her mouth shut over the fact that Lance might have the itsy-est crush on Keith.

“Oooookay,” Pidge said, drawing out the o, “Let’s go harass Keith’s neighbors into answering our personal questions.” 

“I know the woman who lives in the house,” Keith said. “She and my mom are in some book club or something. I’m pretty sure she’s married and has kids but I’ve never seen them.”

“Because she’s married to Bigfoot and had his babies, she doesn’t want them to have low self-esteem since, you know kids are mean now a days,” Pidge said as they arrived at the house.

“That’s a little…much don’t you think?” Lance asked as he watched Keith knock on the door.

A few seconds later a middle aged women answered the door with a dish towel in her hand. “Keith, how lovely to see you, what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Hi Mrs. Carter, I was just stopping by to ask you a few questions,” Keith said. Pidge and Lance tried to sneak a peek inside the house to see if they could spot anyone.

“With your friends?” Mrs. Cater asked, humor bubbling into her voice.

“Uh, yeah, we’re going to hang out at my house but I wanted to ask you about something I saw last night.”

“Oh, and what was that?” Pidge and Lance we’re both sad to say that at this point they hadn’t found any other sign of life in the house, not even a TV or something was on.

“I saw something…odd walk into your backyard last night, like it seemed to be a really tall man, but I thought I noticed something off about them” Keith said. “I was just wondering if my eyes had been playing tricks on me or not.”

“Oh that must’ve been my husband, we keep our dog out back so when he gets home from work he goes out back to bring her in, I’m sure the dark just made him seem different,” Mrs. Carter said.

“Oh, okay, I just wanted to make sure everything was okay,” Keith said with a small nod. “Thanks for talking with us.”

“Of course,” Mrs. Carter said with a wave.

Once she had shut the door Pidge talked first.

“Do you think she was lying?”

“I don’t think so,” Lance said. “She seemed very…truthful? I mean, she didn’t give me a reason to not believe her, what about you Keith?”

“Hmmm, I’m not sure,” Keith said. “She could just be a very good liar, but I really feel like I would’ve noticed sooner if my neighbor was seven feet tall and hairy.”

“Fair point,” Lance said with a nod as they stopped in front of Keith’s house.

“Maybe your theory that Bigfoot is being forced to scavenge for food is what’s really going on and you just happened to see him going to search your neighbors trash,” Pidge said.

“So when are we going to go on our first hunt?” Lance asks. 

“Well first we need to get supplies, but we can do that afterschool tomorrow, so maybe tomorrow night once Hunk’s off of work,” Keith said.

“Sounds like a plan,” Pidge said before waving at the two of them. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow then, I need to get home to start all my homework.”

Lance waved after her before turning to Keith with a smile. “You ready to talk about Shakespeare?” 

//////

“So where exactly are we going to get these supplies to capture Bigfoot?” Lance asked. They were sitting on the floor in Keith’s bedroom and Lance had propped his feet on Keith’s lap as they went over what had been on the test. However, half way through this question had come into Lance’s mind.

Keith shrugged. “I know a place. So pretty much the test has everything we went over last night, right? Cause if so I should be fine.”

“Wait, hold up,” Lance said, holding his hand out. “Back up, you know a place that has supplies to actually catch Bigfoot?”

“Yeah,” Keith said, raising an eyebrow. “I mean, you guys are coming with me tomorrow when I stop there to get the supplies.”

“I swear to god if it’s Home Depot or some kind of tractor supply store I’m going to flip.”

“I can assure you it’s nothing like a Home Depot, and they don’t sell tractors either,” Keith said with a small chuckle that may or may not have made Lance’s heart flutter a little. “So you’re sure that I need to know that-“

“Keith, calm down, you are going to literally ace this test. After going over everything with you last night I’m pretty confident that I passed, so you know that you’re going to do fine.”

“Don’t sell yourself so short Lance,” Keith said, flipping through his notes one last time.

“Well it’s kinda easy when you’re the youngest of five kids, three of which graduated top of their class, one that’s about to finish medical school with top marks, and one that started their own company,” Lance said with a shrug, a sinking feeling forming in his stomach. He really shouldn’t have brought that up.

“Lance, come on, we both know you’re going to go off and doing amazing things just like your siblings. You’re just as smart, if not smarter, as them,” Keith said as he placed his hand over Lance’s knee. “I know you can do whatever you set your mind to.”

“Awww, Keith, you’re going soft on me,” Lance said, hoping his smile was hiding his worries.

“Seriously Lance, I’ve seen you study for hours just to prove a teacher wrong, and the time you walked a mile in the rain just to prove a point to your sister.”

“Those were just normal things-“

“And there was the time you were so determined to befriend the silent kid in your class that you kept talking to them even after they were a total dick-“

“You weren’t a dick,” Lance said, cutting Keith off. “You were just a shy, awkward, anti-social kid.”

“Yeah, and it didn’t stop you from literally talking to me nonstop until I eventually gave in,” Keith said, and the look on his face as he retold the story of the beginning of their friendship gave Lance a warm feeling.

“Hey, I figured you needed some friends.”

“And every single friend I have is thanks to you.”

“We just decided we liked you, it gave our group something extra, having the mysterious kid as our friend,” Lance said with a laugh as Keith rolled his eyes.

“Whatever you say Lance.”

“What it’s true! Everyone wanted to know how we convinced you to befriend us,” Lance said, laughing as he remembered their classmates asking him in awe how he convinced Keith to eat lunch with him and his friends. He still remembered how he told them that they just had to talk to him long enough.

“Well see, there you go, you were so determined to be my friend that you were the only person I befriend in that class,” Keith said. “So could you maybe just admit for a second that you’re capable of doing things that you put your mind to?”

“Fine, I suppose I can agree with you for a few seconds,” Lance said.

“Good,” Keith said, turning back to his notes. A little bit later he let out a barely audible thank you. Lance wasn’t sure if it was for agreeing with him or perhaps something else.

//////

“So this is your Bigfoot catching supplies shop?” Lance asked as he stared up at the sign that read “Coran’s Whosits and Watchamacallits.” It was a little brick shop nestled in town between a pharmacy and flower shop. If Lance hadn’t been following someone to this store he would’ve probably walk past it without even a glance.

“Yep, they’ll have everything we need, plus I have a deal with the owners that makes it easy for me to get everything,” Keith said as he pushed open the door, a tinkling bell signaling their arrival.

Hunk, Pidge and Lance followed in after him and were hit with an earthy, almost musty, smell. Shelves of things lined the store, crates of different unidentifiable things were stacked on top of one another and barrels were nestled at the ends of each shelf.

Lance’s eyes eventually landed on a counter with a register on it. There was no one behind it but that was exactly where Keith was heading.

The three followed after Keith as they tried to absorb everything in the shop, Lance could only recognize a few things and everything else was completely unknown.  
Within seconds of stopping in front of the counter a door behind the counter flung open to reveal a tall woman with white hair that complimented her dark complexion nicely, and despite her prim and business like aura she didn’t look much younger than them.

“Keith, how lovely to see you again,” she trilled, her voice sounding almost like bells, or maybe Lance’s brain was stilling ringing from all these new sights.

“It’s nice to see you too Allura, how is Coran doing?” Keith asked, making easy small talk with this girl which about blew Lance out the shop. Keith couldn’t make small talk to save his life, unless of course he knew them well enough, so now all Lance could think was how Keith had managed to hide a possible friendship with a person like this.

“He’s doing well,” Allura said, as her eyes roamed over Pidge, Hunk and Lance before settling back on Keith, “He’s actually on another expedition somewhere, I think he said something like Ireland or Scotland, but enough about him, who are your friends?”

“Oh, um, that’s Pidge,” Keith said as he pointed at her. 

Pidge waved her hand in greeting as Allura smiled sweetly at her and waved in return.

“That’s Hunk.”

Allura waved first this time and Hunk returned an awkward wave.

“And this is-“

“You must be Lance then,” Allura said, cutting Keith off before giving him a wink. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Lance could think of only one thing to say in this situation. “I’ve heard nothing about you.”

“Lance,” Hunk hissed, elbowing him in the ribs.

“I’m not surprised considering how private Keith is,” Allura said with a laugh as she shot Keith a look as a wide smile spread across her face. “It took me far too many visits to find out his name and age.”

“Really?” Lance asked as he tried to figure out why Keith would exactly come to this kind of shop so often.

“Yep, I do believe that we’re only a year different in age,” Allura said. “I’m turning eighteen in about a month.”

“Well you would be right, except for Pidge of course, the two of you have about a three year difference,” Lance said as he noticed Pidge contemplated elbowing him in his ribs on the opposite side as Hunk.

“Keith did tell me that one of his friends was some kind of genius.”

“Awww Keith, you think I’m a genius,” Pidge cooed as Keith buried his face in his hand.

“Allura please, can you spare the teasing for another visit?”

“Only if you bring them back so I can tell them every single embarrassing thing I know,” Allura said with a smirk, and honestly Lance was beginning to wonder what embarrassing things did she know about Keith that they didn’t? “So what do you need from me today?”

“I’m going to catch Bigfoot,” Keith said simply, causing his three friends to whirl on him with wide eyes because how can you just tell some normal person that you’re on the hunt for Bigfoot? “Oh, and I plan on taking a few pictures of him.”

“Hmm is that so,” Allura said as she tapped her chin and turned around like Keith telling her he was after Bigfoot was just a normal Tuesday occurrence, and for the first time since they had entered the store Lance finally noticed the large collections of books, or more like journals, that lined the wall behind the counter.

Allura ran her hands over the spines of the books and she read the name of each book to herself before popping one off the shelf. “Here we go,” she said, turning around and flipping through a few pages.

Hunk nudged Lance before gesturing down at the book with his head. “Look at the cover.”

Lance glanced down at the cover and sucked in his breath, written on the front of the book in large cursive letters was the word Sasquatch. Lance could understand now why Keith visited this store so often.

“Now then, you’re going to need some unicorn hair reinforced rope,” Allura said with a flick of her wrist all while her eyes skimmed down the page. “Some heavy duty clamps so all the weight will go to them rather than the tree,” she flicked her wrist again, “And I suppose you’ll need something to lure it in so I’ll include in a mixture of berries and nuts,” she flicked her wrist again, and what Lance had initially thought was just a tick turned out to be something he couldn’t have even imagined.

Once she had mentioned the berries Lance noticed something moving in the corner of his eye and turned around to look, and what he saw about blew his mind. He elbowed both Pidge and Hunk who sent him identical glares before turning to see what Lance wanted to show them and they too became dumbstruck. For you see they were watching a rope float towards them, as well as a few other items that Lance figures he must’ve missed once he had noticed the floating object.

The three followed the items until they eventually all landed on the counter in front of Keith, who seemed completely unfazed by this act of magic happening right in front of him.

“Oh, and I’ll add in some ointment in case you get hurt,” Allura said with another flick of her wrist and a few seconds later a little tube came floating by Lance’s face. “Don’t need you getting scratched up by Bigfoot now do we?”

“Thanks Allura,” Keith said with a small nod as he opened his bag. “Can I pay you as usual?”

“Of course,” Allura said, a wide smile crossing her face as she made grabby hands at Keith.

Everyone else in the room was still reeling from watching the little magic show that had happened just a mere seconds earlier to really comprehend how the other two in the room where having such a normal conversation.

Keith pulled out a few bags and set them all out on the counter. “Here you go; a handful of lavender, clover, white mustard, some cattails and those rocks you like.”

“As always Keith thank you for you patronage,” Allura said with a wide smile as she scooped up her payment. “And please don’t get yourself killed.”

“I’ll do my best,” Keith said as he shoved his things into his bag. “I’ll see you later Allura.”

“Bring your friends next time as well,” Allura called after him as he led his friends out of the shop.

The minute the shop’s door closed Keith was bombarded with questions.

“What the heck was that? Like did anyone else find that super weird and scary because seriously it couldn’t have just been me?” Hunk hissed, grabbing Keith’s shoulders as he stared him down waiting for answers.

“Keith how come you never told us you knew a cute magical girl?” Lance asked, popping his head over Hunk’s shoulder so he could look at Keith.

“Is she a wizard? Or is the correct term witch?” Pidge asked, popping her head in through Hunk’s elbow to wait for Keith’s answer.  
Keith shrugged.

“Is that your answer to all our questions or-“ Lance began before Keith cut him off.

“No, it’s more an answer to Hunk’s question since he seems to the most… offset by Allura.”

“She was literally using magic Keith! Magic!” Hunk exclaimed, shaking Keith slightly.

“Okay, okay, calm down,” Keith said, patting Hunk’s shoulder. “You don’t have to worry about Allura, she’s nice and isn’t out to get you or anything.”

“Okay, I guess that makes it…slightly better,” Hunk said, letting go of Keith and taking a step back. “But I’m still scared that she could send me floating into the atmosphere.”

“I don’t think she can actually do that-“

“So Keith, why don’t you answer my question now, hmmm?” Lance asked, pushing Pidge out of the way before she could begin asking Keith if Allura was a certain type of magical person.

“I never told you about Allura because it never really came up,” Keith said with a shrug. “I mean, we’re kinda friends but we’re also kinda not. I guess you could say were more like business associates or something.”

“Are you sure about that because she seemed to have some really embarrassing stuff on you-“

“Okay Pidge,” Keith said, turning to Pidge as his cheeks flared up. “To answer your question, no to both.”

“So what is she then?” Pidge asked. “I mean, I’m sure if I did some research I could find out all the different possibilities-“

“Ask her yourself,” Keith said simply. “I’m sure she’ll tell you if you asked, I’ve never asked so I don’t know. However, I do know that her uncle is a warlock.”

“Interesting,” Pidge mumbled as she looked back into the shop.

“So when are we going out on our first expedition?” Lance asked.

“Whenever Hunk is able to drive us,” Keith said, as they all turned to look at Hunk.

“Ugh, I guess I can drive you guys tonight after my shift,” Hunk said with a sign.

“Thank you,” the three said right back to him.

“But just so you know I’m still not sure about this,” Hunk said, holding up his finger. “But I know that if I left you three alone you’d probably burn down the town.”

“Wow Hunk, we really trust you too,” Pidge said, crossing her arms.

“Don’t you dare deny it Pidge, I still remember the time I turned my back on you three for a minute during a field trip and when I turned back around a trash can was on fire and a monkey had escaped from its cage.”

The three were silent for a few minutes.

“I mean, he kinda has a point you guys.”

“Thank you Keith, this is why you’re my favorite child.”

“What about me?!” Lance shrieked. 

“You were disowned when you ran my car into the billboard for McDonalds.”

“…..I said I was sorry.”

//////

“Guys, I’m not sure how I feel about this,” Hunk said as he stared out at the woods which looked extra creepy to him now that it was dark outside.

“You’ll be fine Hunk,” Keith said as he hopped out of the car and slung his bag over his shoulder. “We’ll be gone for an hour at most, and if we aren’t just call us or something.”

“We’ll be fine Hunk,” Lance said, patting his best friend on the shoulder in hopes of comforting him. “Just sit in the car and blasts some tunes until we get back, okay?”

“Plus, I’ll be sending you text updates like every five minutes,” Pidge added, “So all you’ll have to do is sit here and wait until we need a getaway car.”

“From what?!” Hunk cried as Pidge closed the door behind her with a snicker.

“Come on Pidge, be nice to Hunk,” Lance called after her as she and Keith started to head off to the woods.

“We’ll be fine buddy,” Lance said, poking his head back in the car to reassure Hunk one last time. “And hey, when we spot Bigfoot I’ll make sure to snap a picture and send it to you.”

“Okay,” Hunk said hesitantly. “But I’m not going in after you if Bigfoot starts to eat you guys.”

“Of course buddy, hang tight until we get back,” Lance said before giving him a salute and closing the door. He ran to catch up with Keith and Pidge who were having a very heated discussion.

“I’m just saying that the best cryptid would have to be Nessie, it’s indisputable,” Pidge said, waving her hand at Keith’s pinched face.

“Um, no, Mothman is much better than Nessie, Mothman has a statue, does Nessie have a statue?” Keith asked, crossing his arms and Lance was maybe slightly regretting not just staying in the car with Hunk as a watch.

“There are in fact many Nessie statues,” Pidge said, hurriedly typing something into her phone before showing Keith a load of google images of the many Nessie statues.

“Well at least Mothman has a six pack,” Keith said, and the confident look he had on his face reminded Lance why he was out with these nerds in a dark forest instead of in the safety of his home.

“Wow, yep that just makes him automatically the winner,” Pidge said, throwing her hands in the air.

“Come on guys, you don’t want to scare Bigfoot away, do you?” Lance asked, throwing his arms around the two of them.

“I can’t let Keith just bad mouth Nessie like that,” Pidge said, sending a glare to Keith who sent one right back.

“Listen, you guys can argue about which cryptid is the best after we can un-cryptid Bigfoot,” Lance said as they finally entered the trees.

Keith and Pidge exchanged a look, at least they seemed civil now. 

“Un-cyrptid?” Pidge asked, trying to hide her laughter and failing all while Keith soon joined in.

“What? Once we find out that Bigfoot is actually real he isn’t a cryptid anymore right?” Lance asked looking between the two for some kind of understanding.

“I’m not sure if that’s the right term,” Keith said, snorting as he tried to hold in his laughter.

“I can’t believe my own friends would do this to me,” Lance said, pressing a hand to his forehead, effectively trapping Pidge’s head to his chest.

“Free me you tree!!” Pidge cried as she tried to pry Lance’s arm off of her.

“No, this is what you get!” Lance said as he took his arm off of Keith and gave Pidge a noogie.

“I swear to god I already have one brother I don’t need another,” Pidge cried before finally weaseling out of Lance’s grasp. “What about Keith, he laughed at you too!”

“Keith gets a free pass as it is his first offense,” Lance said.

“You and me both know that is a dirty lie,” Pidge hissed, pointing at Lance.

“Come on you two, lets quiet down, we don’t want to possibly scare him off,” Keith whispered as he pulled a digital camera out of his bag as well as a flashlight which he handed to Lance who then turned it on.

“Okay fine,” Pidge said with a huff as she pulled out her phone to send Hunk a text reassuring him that they hadn’t been eaten or mauled.

“So what exactly are we looking for?” Lance whispered, leaning as close as he could to Keith without making it too weird.

“We’re looking for a giant man that’s covered in fur,” Keith whispered back, not bothering to move to give them any extra space between them. “I don’t think it’ll be hard to miss.”

“Hardy har har Keith,” Lance whispered back before straightening up, but he didn’t move any.

“Hey, Hunk just texted me saying he’s hearing weird noises,” Pidge said as she slipped her phone into her pocket.

“Tell him it’s probably just bugs,” Keith whispers as he moved aside a tree branch, gesturing at Lance and Pidge to go first.

“Such a gentleman,” Lance said, sending Keith a wink that’s reaction was hidden by the dark.

“Lance, please focus on the task at hand,” Pidge mumbled as she continued to tap away at her phone.

“Shut it Pidge,” Lance mumbled right back before silence fell among the three as they continued their trek through the forest with only the flashlight and the pale glow of the moon.

Every few minutes the silence would be broken by Pidge tapping away at her phone to update Hunk, none of which were very excited. The only interesting one was a video she sent of Lance falling after he tripped in some hole and despite her claim that he had screamed like a little girl it was very false and full slander to his good name. At least Keith had been worried that Lance might’ve broken his leg or something. This entire ordeal was showing him who his real friends are, at least that’s what he thought until Keith asked Pidge to send him the video too. Betrayal stung.

The hour was quickly dwindling and so far all they had seen were a few raccoons and a single fox.

“Maybe we should head back to Hunk,” Lance said to Keith, he had given up whispering a long time ago when he figured they weren’t going to be stumbling on Bigfoot any time soon. “I mean, we have school in the morning so we shouldn’t be out too late.”

“I guess you’re right,” Keith said with a sigh. “I don’t think we’ll be seeing Bigfoot tonight, maybe we can try again on Friday when we don’t have to worry about school.”

The trio turned around and started heading back to the beginning of the forest. “Plus Hunk works later on Fridays so we can come out later at night, it might give us a better chance of spotting him,” Pidge offered.

“Yeah that’s true,” Keith said as he pulled out his phone to check the time. “Shit.”

“Hmm, what is it?” Lance asked as he peeked over Keith’s shoulder to get a look at his phone. “Did your parents call you or something?”

“I missed a call from Shiro,” Keith said as he shoved his phone into his pocket. “Which means he’ll be up my ass the next time I call him.”

“Shiro isn’t that bad,” Lance said with a laugh, compared to his siblings Shiro seemed really chill….except maybe when it involved Keith.

“You’ve just never seen him in mother hen mode,” Keith said as they reached the edge of the trees. “He’ll be asking me about twenty questions in one breath about whether or not I was doing questionable things.”

“I wonder if looking for Bigfoot is questionable?” Pidge asked aloud, looking over at Lance and Keith. “I mean, we are kinda out late at night in the middle of the woods.”

“I’m going to tell him the truth,” Keith said with a shrug.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Lance asked as they approached Hunk’s car, he hoped Hunk was fine.

“I don’t see why not,” Keith said with a shrug as he knocked on the car window and waved at Hunk who in return gave him two thumbs up and unlocked the doors. “I mean, I was out with my friends so he should be happy that I’m being sociable.”

“Even if you’re looking for Bigfoot?” Lance asked as he opened the passenger’s door.

Keith paused a moment. “I might leave the Bigfoot part out.”

“Good call,” Pidge said as she slipped into the car.

Within milliseconds of the three of them being in the car Hunk began to ask all the important questions he had. “Are you guys okay? Did you see anything? Lance you’re not, like, super injured from your fall right? Pidge why did you film Lance hurting himself instead of helping him? But everyone’s okay right? Oh but did you see anything? I assume you would’ve sent me a picture but you seemed preoccupied with Lance falling over and-“

“Hunk, take a deep breath,” Lance said, placing a comforting hand on his friend’s shoulder. “As you can see we’re fine, no one is hurt.”

“Except Lance’s ego,” Pidge piped up from the back with a giggle.

Lance turned around and gave her a look but as usual she was unaffected. He looked to Keith for some help but he simply shrugged at Lance.

“Okay, but did you like, see something?” Hunk asked as he started the car.

“Nope, nothing,” Keith said, Lance could see Keith’s dejected face in the rear view mirror. “But we were maybe thinking we might have better luck Friday night if you’re okay with driving?”

“It’s no problem man,” Hunk said. “It wasn’t too bad sitting out there.”

“Hunk, you had like fifty questions for us when we got back,” Lance said, laughing at the face Hunk shot him.

“I was worried, Pidge isn’t very good at updates,” Hunk whined. “One time she literally just sent me 'lol Lance just blinded himself' or the classic 'hoot hoot'.”

“I was telling you that we had seen an owl,” Pidge said, poking her head up over the seat so that it was resting besides Hunk’s headrest.

“Okay, but the first one had no context!”

“Lance was trying to climb a tree!” 

“Why!”

“Do you really need context for why he was trying to climb a tree?” Pidge asked.

“Oooooh, well I suppose not,” Hunk said, his eyes flitting up the rear view mirror then back to the road. “I guess considering everything I don’t.”

Lance knew Hunk and Pidge thought they were being sneaky with their subtle hints but Lance was far from dumb. He knew that as usual they were talking about what seemed to become one of their favorite teasing points, Lance’s crush. But Lance was not climbing the tree to impress Keith, nope, nuh uh, he just wanted to get a better look at the owl, that was all.

“Am I missing something?” Keith asked, following in suit with Pidge and sticking his head on Lance’s seat.

“No, Pidge and Hunk are just being meanies,” Lance said as he stuck his tongue out at Pidge.

“Lance I’m appalled, I have never once been mean to you in my entire life,” Pidge said, acting shocked as she placed her hand over her heart. “You wound me.”

“Lying doesn’t suit you Pidge,” Lance said. 

Keith just kept watching them go back and forth, he had learned long ago that it was best to let them sass each other until they were eventually done.

“Okay time to stop now,” Hunk said, swatting his hand back at Pidge. “I don’t need you two to start fighting while I’m driving. You too Keith, sit back in your seat,” Hunk said, glancing back at Keith who slowly slunk back into his seat. “Good, now I don’t have to worry about possible accidents.”

“It’s not like Lance is driving,” Pidge muttered, crossing her arms.

“Pidge please spare us please!” Hunk yelled overtop of Lance’s screeching. Pidge however, was not affected in the slightest as she sat in her seat with a large smile on her face.  
Keith’s house was the first on their stop.

“See you tomorrow mullet,” Lance called with a wave as Keith got out of the car.

“I thought we both agreed to leave that nickname back in middle school,” Keith said, his brow furrowed together as if he was really confused to why Lance was still using that old nickname, but still a small smile formed on his lips.

“Well if it still fits,” Lance said with a shrug as Keith let out a fond huff before closing the door behind. Lance decided however he wasn’t finished with the conversation so he put down the window and stuck his head out the window. “Come on Keith, you and me both know you still have that same mullet that you had in sixth grade!”

Keith whirled around to look at Lance, a confused, but slightly amused look on his face. “If I remember correctly you told me that my haircut was pretty cool in seventh grade,” Keith said, barely able to finish his sentence before he burst into a fit of giggles. “So you apparently like it!”

Lance squawked at this claim, how did Keith even remember that far back? “That’s a dirty lie and you know it Keith!” Lance said, trying and failing to hide the amusement in his voice.

“Whatever you say Lance,” Keith said before giving him one last wave. “See you tomorrow.”

“See ya,” Lance called back as Hunk began to drive away from Keith’s house without warning. “A heads up would’ve been nice,” Lance said as he fell back into his seat before he could fall out the window.

“I need to make sure Pidge gets home before her curfew,” Hunk said with a shrug.

“Pidge’s curfew isn’t until, like, midnight,” Lance pointed out.

“Well we all know that unless I pulled away you would’ve probably climbed out of the car to keep talking to Keith,” Hunk said as he pulled out of Keith’s neighborhood.

“That’s not true,” Lance said, crossing his arms and sliding down in his seat.

“Lance please, I can feel the romantic tension from back here,” Pidge said as she threw herself onto the center console. “You really like Keith, like a lot.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Lance said with a huff. He didn’t really need Pidge and Hunk to remind him of his ginormous crush on Keith all the time, he knew and had accepted it long ago.

“Well you know maybe, you should just confess to him how you feel,” Pidge said, looking up at Lance and before Lance could disagree with her Hunk joined in as well.

“Listen buddy, nothing bad will come out of you telling Keith how you feel,” Hunk said, sending his friend a look that pretty much told Lance how Hunk felt about the whole situation. “You’ll either stay friends or get together; it’s a win-win either way.”

“Plus,” Pidge said, placing a hand on Lance’s arm, “I’ve seen the way Keith looks at you and shit, I highly doubt he won’t feel the same.”

“But you guys don’t know for sure,” Lance said with a loud sigh. “I don’t want to put myself out there to only get shot down, what if I ruin our friendship because I’m all mopey!”

“Lance, listen, Keith has put up with all different sides of you in your many years of friendship, he’s not going to ditch you because you get a little sad over his rejection,” Hunk said. “Knowing Keith if that did happen he’d probably work harder to be a better friend and beat himself up as well for making you cry.”

“But I don’t-“

“Bup, bup, bup,” Pidge said, pressing her finger to Lance’s mouth, “No more insecurities, it’s just a suggestion, it’s not like I’m telling you that you need to confess. I just want my friends to be happy, and I just know that for some reason you and Keith make each other really happy.”

Lance was silent for a second before letting out a deep breath. “Thanks guys, for the-what was this? A pep talk? But anyway, just, thanks.” Lance dug his fingers into his arm as he bit at his lip. “But I don’t think I’m going to tell him anytime soon, I’m fine with just being friends right now.”

“Okay Lance,” Pidge said as she sent him another look. “Just know that we’ll support you whenever you decide to do it.”

“Yeah buddy, we got your back,” Hunk chimed in.

Lance smiled, he was so glad for his friends support in this. “Thanks guys.”

///// 

“Keith I swear to god, if you hadn’t already decided that the next time we go out spelunking is Friday I would’ve beaten you up today to make you change your mind,” Lance mumbled, his face hidden in his arms as he tried, but ultimately failed, to take a nap during their lunch period.

“Lance please, you can’t be that tired,” Pidge said, taking a large bite out of her peanut butter and banana sandwich, something that Lance had long ago given up teasing her about.

“Pidge, you also run perfectly fine on, like, three hours of sleep,” Hunk pointed out, while he wasn’t tired he knew Lance functioned best with well over eight hours of sleep, more like ten, and when he got less than that he was anything but cheerful.

“It be best to adapt like me,” Pidge said with a shrug. “How is he going to survive college?”

“With a lot of coffee,” Keith said with a laugh as he watched Lance with a sappy smile that Lance coincidently could not see since he was too busy trying to take a nap. Hunk and Pidge exchanged a look they had been using more and more, they loved their friends but they were kinda idiots, loveable idiots but idiots, when it came to noticing the other’s affection.

“I don’t think I’m going to be alive in college,” Lance muttered, finally lifting his head up and resting it in his hands. “I’m going to be a zombie that thrives on caffeine.”

“You’ll become the latest cryptid when you start college,” Pidge said, a teasing smile on her face. “I’m sure Keith will have us out looking for you at your campus.”

“Please, Keith’ll become a cryptid just like me, we’ve all seen him when finals roll around, he disappears for a straight up week to study,” Lance said, rolling his eyes but sending Keith a grin. “Imagine him in college; he’ll be doing it every week.”

“But who knows, maybe Keith and Lance will be easier to find than Bigfoot,” Hunk said, laughing at his joke.

“I don’t know, it might be just as hard to photograph Keith as Bigfoot,” Pidge said.

“The real cryptid all along was Keith never appearing in any photos,” Lance said.

“We all know there are pictures of me, you even have some Lance.”

“Who’s to say they’re even you, what if you have a twin you’ve never told us about?” Hunk said, pointing his cheese stick at Keith.

“Hunk please, you’re supposed to be the rational one.”

“Hey, I think I threw away rational when I agreed to help you all look for Bigfoot considering that isn’t exactly a rational thing to do.”

“You….you got me there.”

“Uh huh,” Hunk said, taking a bite of his cheese stick. “But I have to remind you guys that I can’t drive you around on Bigfoot expeditions next week, the robotics club has a completion we’re going to and I’ve already predicted we’ll at least make it through the first three days.”

“Hunk, didn’t you pretty much build the robot by yourself?” Lance asked because he remembers a very stressed out Hunk the previous week.

“Pidge helped me fix the bugs in the program, but yeah,” Hunk said with a shrug. “I’m practically the entire robotics team since Pidge refuses to join.”

“I don’t want to be constricted, you all wouldn’t like it if I tried to build a robot that, like I don’t know, had a flamethrower on it.”

“That is very true.”

“Pidge, are you planning on starting the robotic revolution?” Lance asked, leaning forward so that he was inches from Pidge’s face.

“If one of my robots starts it then it’s just an unforeseen accident,” Pidge said with a shrug, not even hiding her smirk.

“Hunk, you gotta get started on the robot that takes down Pidge’s!”

“Guys please; I highly doubt Pidge would actually build a robot like that.”

“I mean, didn’t Pidge take down every teacher’s computer for a week when we were in middle school?” Keith asked, not that he really needed any confirmation since Pidge still bragged about it to this day.

“…..You do have a point,” Hunk muttered all while Pidge cackled. “I may want to start on a design.”

/////

Friday night came quicker than Lance had expected, and before he knew it he was back in Hunk’s car and heading towards the woods near the edge of town.

“Maybe we should split up tonight,” Keith mused aloud, causing Hunk and Lance to pause their argument on what was the best pizza in town and there was no way Hunk could actually think that his work had the best pizza, which had to be bias since they wrote him a paycheck and come on Hunk there was no way-

“Hmmm, why?” Pidge asked, not even looking up from her phone, apparently not fazed by the idea of them walking through the dark in the woods by themselves.

“Maybe the reason we didn’t see Bigfoot was because we were in a group, maybe we’d have better luck if we separated,” Keith said, apparently in the same boat as Pidge and not concerned with walking around in the dark!

“Uh, no, that is not a good idea,” Lance said, cutting in before Keith and Pidge decided to do something stupid and reckless, their favorite pastime. “Have you two never watched a horror movie where everyone splits up in the darks woods?”

“We’re not going to die Lance,” Pidge said, rolling her eyes.

“Lance might have a point,” Hunk said, and Lance takes back everything he said about his pizza preference.

“Thank you Hunk, I knew I could-“

“What if someone gets hurt, and by someone I mean Lance.”

Never mind, Lance revokes his previous claim about forgiving Hunk for his pizza preference. “Hunk, come on buddy!”

“What, last time you guys went out you tripped in a hole! Not that Pidge or Keith can’t get hurt but still, you’re a bit more…clumsy,” Hunk said as he pulled off into the field by the woods. “I just think it would be best if you all walked together to prevent possible injuries.”

“I guess Hunk has a point,” Keith said.

“So we’re sticking together then?” Lance asked as he opened the door.

“Yeah, I guess,” Keith said. “Wouldn’t want Hunk to be worried.”

“Remember to text me updates!” Hunk called after them.

Pidge gave him a thumbs up as she closed the door before jogging to catch up with Lance and Keith.

“Jesus guys wait for a second, I have shorter legs,” Pidge said once she caught up to them.

“Who are you and where is Pidge? She would never refer to any part of her as short,” Lance said, staring down at Pidge with fake shock.

“Shut it Lance,” Pidge said, taking a swipe at his shoulder but missing. “When my dumb friends decide to go off gallivanting for Bigfoot without me it makes me testy,” she said before taking out her phone and furiously typing.

“Pidge, who are you texting?”

“I’m telling Hunk that you’re being mean to me, the baby.”

“Pidge, oh my god please,” Lance cried as he tried to grab her phone. “Stop being over dramatic!”

“I learned from the best,” Pidge said as she hit send.

A few seconds later they had reached the tree line and Keith’s phone was going on. 

“Hunk says to be nice to Pidge-“

“Oh come on!”

“And to stop teasing Lance, Pidge,” Keith said, finishing the text as Pidge lets out a loud huff.

“So what’s the plan mullet?” Lance asks as they enter the trees. It seemed a lot darker than the previous night, probably due to it being an hour later than last time or that the moon was waning but it was still a lot creepier than last time, Lance was pretty sure he could hear an owl somewhere, and was that bush next to him rustling-

“I thought we talked about you calling me mullet?” Keith said, turning on the flashlight and handing it to Lance.

“I’ve decided that I should bring it back,” Lance said with a grin as his hand rose up and flipped Keith’s hair. “It still suits you.”

Keith seemed unnaturally tense when he answered Lance. “So does that mean I can call you long legs or-“

“Come on Keith, mullet has a nice ring to it,” Lance said, throwing his hands in the air. “Mullet rolls off the tongue, long legs does not.”

“Well he could call you leggy-“ Pidge begins before cutting herself off with her own laughter.

“That’s karma Pidge,” Lance said as he watches Pidge wheeze and clutch her sides. “It’s what mean gremlins get.”

“Lance, remember Hunk’s text,” Keith said, pretending like he wasn’t laughing but failing horribly.

“Pidge forgot what she was told!”

“Maybe we should be quiet for a while,” Keith said, tapering off when he noticed his friends staring at him. “What?”

“Just say it Keith, tell us to be quiet so we can see Bigfoot,” Pidge whispered before bursting out giggling once again.

“Guys come on, I’m serious about this,” Keith said as he watched Pidge kneel on the ground wheezing while Lance patted her back.

“Okay, okay,” Pidge wheezed, holding out her hand. “I’m done, it’s all out of my system.”

“Lance-“

“I’m giving you one hundred percent of my support,” Lance said, pretending to zip his lips for good measure.

“Okay, remember if you see anything suspiciously Bigfoot shaped to take a picture.”

The trio walked in silence for a while, the only noises they heard belonged to the animals out as late as them. Lance was on edge, not one hundred percent sure what to focus on most of the time. It was hard to focus on looking for Bigfoot when there was so many other noises going on around him, but he did his best to keep an eye out for something seven feet tall while also looking at every owl.

Every once in a while Pidge’s phone would light up signaling that she was texting Hunk and sometimes she would let out a laugh at something Hunk would send back.

“Hey, Hunk wants to know how much longer we’re going to be out here,” Pidge said, and honestly Hunk was probably starting to get a bit fidgety considering they had been walking thought the woods for a good hour and a half.

“Just a little longer,” Keith whispers, “The trail ends a little bit ahead, once we reach it we’ll start heading back.”

“Okay,” Pidge said before texting the answer to Hunk.

Now Lance enjoyed spending time with his friends, and he had said on numerous occasions that he would literally watch Keith dumpster dive if it meant spending time with him, but he was beginning to think that Keith would keep going out to the woods until he got the picture he wanted. And while Pidge would probably put her foot down if she got tired of walking through the forest, and maybe Hunk too but he normally had a hard time saying no to a friend, Lance on the other hand knew he couldn’t just let Keith wander around in the dark alone without it clawing at his conscious so he needed to figure out how long Keith was willing to keep this up.

“Hey mullet,” Lance whispered bending down slightly so he was closer to Keith’s ear, “How long are you going to keep this up if you don’t get your picture?”

“What do you mean exactly?” Keith whispered back.

“I mean, how long do you plan to come out here and look for Bigfoot without ever getting a picture?”

“I don’t know, maybe a week or two,” Keith whispered back with a shrug. “I’m not crazy enough to keep showing up every night, there’s no need to worry.”

“Good, I don’t want to be walking around in the dark for-“

“Hey guys, did you hear that?” Pidge whispered yelled.

“No,” Lance said, furrowing his brow and glancing around to see if he could spot anything.

“What did you hear?” Keith asked, holding up his camera, ready to snap any potential picture.

“I don’t know, it sounded like something really heavy was stomping through the leaves,” Pidge whispered as she toed at the leaves on the ground.

“Keep your eyes peeled, we’re almost to the end of the trail,” Keith whispered as he continued to creep forward with Pidge and Lance trailing behind him, looking around for anything that could jump out at them.

“I think you might’ve just heard a fox or something,” Keith whispered as they reached the end of the trail. Keith glanced around as Pidge shook her head.

“It sounded too loud,” Pidge whispered before glancing between Lance and Keith. “It sounded….like a human.”

“Pidge please,” Lance whispered, “I don’t need to be thinking about possible axe murderers in the woods.”

“I was referring to Bigfoot!”

“Keith, please tell Pidge that when she says something sounds human could also refer to…” Lance said, turning to Keith to get him to agree with him when he tapered off when he saw something move a few feet in front of them. 

“Holy crow Keith,” Lance said, grabbing his friend’s shoulder and shaking it. “Do you see that?”

“See what Lance?” Keith asked, looking in the direction that Lance was and instantly freezing under Lance’s grip.

“You saw it too?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Keith said, and like the doofus he was he began to creep forward.

“Keith,” Lance whisper yelled as his watched his friend try to possibly kill himself.

“Is it Bigfoot?” Pidge whispered, pulling out her phone to take a picture.

“I don’t know, I just saw something move behind that tree,” Lance whispered as he followed Keith against his better judgement because it seemed that when he was around Keith he had none.

The trio had only taken a few steps forward when something moved from out beyond the tree. 

Lance sucked in his breath, Keith let out an excited “yes.” Pidge seemed relatively unfazed considering there was what looked like a ginormous human standing only a few feet in front of them, except Lance was pretty sure humans didn’t look hairy.

“Shine the light on it,” Keith whispered as he held up his camera ready to take the pictures.

“I don’t know-“ Lance began, about ready to fight Keith because he wasn’t sure if he wanted to shine a light on that thing for fear of what he would see. However, Pidge prevented him from having to do so.

“Sweet,” Pidge muttered, “Can’t wait to tell Matt that I saw Bigfoot.” Pidge than decided that the best thing to do in this situation was to take a picture. With the flash on.

Whatever that thing was, Lance could only figure at this point that both his friends had decided it was Bigfoot and not some crazy tall axe murderer; it did not like it when the flash went off and it made it, understandably, angry. Like angry enough to start running at them.

“Okay time to go,” Lance yelled as Pidge whirled around and starting booking it back the way they came. But Keith, stupid dumb Keith, stood there snapping pictures, so Lance had to take the situation in his hands, literally.

Grabbing Keith’s hand he bolted, pulling Keith behind him who was still trying to take a decent picture.

“Keith, please focus more on running and less on taking pictures of the thing chasing after us!” Lance yelled as his grip on Keith tightened, he could see Pidge a few feet ahead of them, glancing back every so after to look at them or Bigfoot, Lance wasn’t sure.

“Ugh, fine,” Keith yelled, as if him possibly dying wasn’t something to worry about, but thankfully he started running more to the point where he was almost the one dragging Lance behind him.

The edge of the forest couldn’t seem to reach them quick enough as Lance heard the thump of feet behind them, but finally, finally the three of them passed the finale tree and started sprinting through the wide opened field.

Lance had long ago given up the idea of looking behind them, just focusing on Hunk’s car and hoping that he had it unlocked because now wasn’t really the time to wait for him to unlock the car with Bigfoot chased after them.

Pidge reached the car first, banging on the window when she discovered the doors to be locked. As Lance and Keith reached the car, Pidge was throwing open the door and jumping in.

Lance jumped in after Pidge, not bothering to try and get in the front since now was not exactly the time for seat preference, and dragged Keith in after him.

Keith slammed the car door shut as Lance and Pidge yelled at Hunk.

“HUNK FLOOR IT BUDDY WE NEED TO GET OUTTA HERE!”

“HUNK HOLY CRAP WE NEED TO MOVE NOW!!”

Hunk, the poor dear, managed to understand his friends’ message and started the car before pressing the gas to the floor and driving them away from the field like a mad man.

“What happened?!” Hunk cried, looking at his pale friends in the rear view mirror. 

“I may have pissed off Bigfoot,” Pidge said, gripping the seat as she sucked in large breaths with Lance and Keith also doing their best catching their breath.

“You guys saw Bigfoot!” Hunk cried, almost veering out of his lane.

“Yep, we even got picture, I think,” Pidge said as she took out her phone.

Lance took a deep breath and fell against the seat, it was kinda cramped with all three of them sitting in the back but he could manage. Lance also noticed an unfamiliar weight in his hand and looked down to see that he was still clutching Keith’s hand like their life depended upon it. A million different things ran through Lance’s head, mostly screaming, as he slowly let go of Keith’s hand as nonchalantly as possible.

Keith didn’t seem to notice much as he took out his camera to look at the pictures he had taken.

“Aww man, they’re all blurry,” Keith pouted as he glared down at the camera.

“Maybe Pidge’s picture is better, I mean she did have flash on-“

“Pidge, why did you have flash on if you knew you’d be out looking for a potentially dangerous mon-cryptid?” Hunk asked, exasperation in his voice like he couldn’t believe his friends were like this, though he should’ve come to terms with this long ago.

“I finally learned why all the cryptid pictures are blurry,” Keith said as he shoved his camera back in his bag.

“And why's that?”

“Because the photographer’s friend is always dragging them away.”

“Keith, it was running at us! Your wellbeing is worth a lot more than a picture,” Lance said, rubbing his forehead.

“I don’t know, science is pretty important-“

“Oh hey, my picture isn’t too bad by the way,” Pidge piped up, looking at Keith and Lance over her phone.

“Let me see,” Keith said, practically crawling over Lance to look at Pidge’s phone.

“It’s not too great but you can see the outline and the hair,” Pidge said as she showed off her picture.

“Oh man you guys know what this means?” Keith asked in a hushed whisper.

“I’m almost afraid to ask,” Lance muttered.

“We’re going to set up a trap for Bigfoot.”

“I was afraid you’d say that,” Lance said as his head fell back onto the seat. He was tired and still a little out of breath from all that running. 

Keith, Pidge, and even Hunk, were chattering away about how they were going to set up a trap for something possibly over two hundred pounds, so Lance just let himself sit back for a second and take a small nap.

Lance felt it when the car stopped, but didn’t bother opening his eyes, at least not until he heard Keith whisper a small “thank you,” to him, then his eyes almost flew open. But Keith’s back was already turned and the door was closed.

Trying to fall back asleep didn’t work too well when you have Pidge giggling in your ear while poking you, asking over and over again, “What did he say?”

/////

“Do you think we’re heading back to the woods tonight?” Hunk asked while he cruelly dropped three banana peels in front of Lance, and after Lance had been nice enough to not knock him off the course earlier.

“Well considering that we actually got a picture last night, I’d have to say yes,” Pidge said as she easily cruised ahead of everyone with a practically cinched win.

“At least you don’t have to go out looking with us,” Lance said, letting out a whoop in excitement when he managed to dodge Hunk’s bananas. 

“I guess that’s true,” Hunk said as he tried to inch closer to Pidge only to be hit by a green shell, Lance’s green shell to be precise. “Lance, come on man!”

“You put those bananas deliberately in my way Hunk,” Lance said as he sped past his friend. “This is retribution.”

“That’s cute,” Pidge said as she easily dodged the two shells Lance threw at her. “But sadly, it’s not enough to take down the raining Mario Kart champ!” Pidge then swerved over so that her car was right in front of Lance’s and dropped a banana peel before Lance even had time to react.

Pidge crossed the finish line while Lance screeched about Pidge and her dirty tricks. 

“Too bad Keith didn’t come over to play too,” Pidge said as the screen showing her character jumping happily in victory with Hunk’s just a tier below them, Lance had come in fourth thanks to Pidge’s dirty tactic. “At least than Lance would have someone even worse at Mario Kart than him.”

“You know Keith can’t help it,” Lance said as he clicked past the screen showing the final results and clicked the next course. “The boy only played Mario Kart for the first time two years ago. He hasn’t had the time we’ve had.”

“I don’t know, I kinda like it when it’s just the three of us hanging out-not that I don’t like Keith it’s just, well…” Hunk said, struggling to put his thoughts into words.

“No, I get it buddy,” Lance said, patting his friend on the arm as the countdown came up on the screen. “I love hanging out with Keith, but sometimes it’s kinda nice hanging out just the three of us ya know, the OG squad.”

Hunk groaned. “Never call us that again, please!”

“You’re no fun Hunk,” Lance said as he tried to pass Pidge only to get almost hit off the course. “You don’t think it’s a bad name, right Pidge?”

“It’s better than all the other names you’ve tried to give us,” Pidge said, succeeding in pushing Lance off the course when he tried to pass her again.

“Pidge!” Lance cried as he fell off. “I trusted you!”

“That’s unfortunate,” Pidge said as she kept right on going.

“The only reason you never loose is because you’re a cruel emotionless player,” Lance said as he was dropped back down onto the course, now in eighth place.

“That’s not true Lance,” Pidge said, taking the corner wide and hitting the player off that took it close. “I just know what I want and work hard for it.”

“That sounds like something from an interview,” Hunk said as he placed a row of banana peels behind him.

“You always have to be prepared in this job market,” Pidge said, groaning when she saw Lance get star power. “You better stay away from me Lance!”

“Try me Pidge,” Lance said as he began to surge forward and hit every player he passed, coming up on Hunk and Pidge as it wore off.

“Buddy I’m warning you, I have a turtle shell and I’m not afraid to use it,” Hunk warns as Lance inches closer and closer to him.

“Do it Hunk!” Pidge yelled as she finished her first lap. “End him!”

“I don’t think throwing the turtle shell will end him.”

“No teaming up,” Lance said as he finally caught up to Hunk and began battling him for second place.

“Lance, I’m warning you,” Hunk said right before he released the shell only for Lance to effortlessly dodge it.

“Haha, eat my dust Hunk,” Lance said as he finally sped past his friend and putting himself in second place.

“Just try me Lance,’ Pidge said as she watched Lance try to get closer to her.

“You better watch out Pidge, I’m about to dethrone you,” Lance said with a loud cackle, and Lane swears that he was about to pass her during the last seconds of the final lap when Hunk’s phone loudly chimed, causing Lance to jump and missing his opportunity to pass Pidge.

“Hunk!” Lance cried as Pidge crossed the finish line first with him being a mere half a second behind her. “I was just about to dethrone her!”

“Sorry,” Hunk said as he picked up his phone, at least he sounded sorry for ruining their only chance to dethrone Pidge, who was currently doing a victory dance, “I had to set an alarm for work.”

“Awww man, you’re leaving us?!” Lance cried, draping himself across Hunk’s lap. “Buddy, why do you love work more than us?”

“Lance you and I both know that’s not true,” Hunk said as he stared down at Lance. “I like you guy a little bit more than work, even though it does give me some peace of mind away from my very loud and problematic friends, whom I love very much!”

Lance pointed up at Hunk. “You’re playing dirty, distracting us with that insult as a compliment.”

“Uh huh,” Hunk said as he rolled Lance off his lap. “I’ve perfected it over the years.”

“Ugh fine, just abandon us,” Lance said, rolling so his face was on the ground.

“I’ll see you guys later,” Hunk said as Lance could hear his footsteps on the stairs before the front door opened and then closed.

“What are we going to do now?” Lance asked aloud, rolling over onto his back.

“I could keep beating you in Mario Kart,” Pidge said as she continued to click through the menu.

“Nooooo, it’s no fun when it’s only me getting beat by you.”

“Text Keith and see if he wants to come over,” Pidge suggested. “Then you can both get your butts beaten by me.”

“I don’t know, he might be busy-“

“Doing what? Watching cryptid documentaries?” Pidge asked with a laugh. “Cause if so I’m offended he didn’t ask me to watch them with him.”

“Nah, he was video chatting Shiro when I texted him earlier,” Lance said as he picked his phone up from the floor and unlocked it.

“It’s been like, what, three hours?” Pidge said staring at the time on her phone with a wrinkled nose. “I don’t think he’s still talking to Shiro.”

“You’d be surprised,” Lance mumbled as he sent a text to Keith asking him if he wanted to come over to Pidge’s place and play video games, he made sure not to specify Mario Kart, Keith knew he was terrible at Mario Kart.

“Lance, please, Keith is the emo of this group not you,” Pidge said, poking him with her foot. “I’m sure he’d love to come over and talk to us about his plan for capturing Bigfoot.”

“Ugh, I know you’re right,” Lance said, throwing his arm across his eyes. “And I hate it.”

“You should be used to me being right after all these years.”

Lance didn’t respond, but perked up when his phone went off. Keith had texting him agreeing to come over, but had asked if they could maybe not play Mario Kart. Oh poor naïve Keith, they always played Mario Kart.

“I take it he’s coming over,” Pidge said, raising an eyebrow at Lance’s wide smile.

“Yeah.”

“Good, I love being able to tease you both at once.”

“Pidge!”

“Lance!”

The two stared each other down for a few seconds before a brilliant idea sprung into Lance’s head.

“I know that face, what terrible idea do you have?”

“It’s not terrible Pidge! It’s a great idea that I know you’ll love because it involves pestering our dearest friend Hunk,” Lance said, his phone lightening up again to tell him that Keith was on his way over.

Pidge seemed to contemplate this for a second, hand on her chin as she stared down Lance. “…Continue.”

“I say we visit Hunk at his work before he gets off, you know, so we cut travel time to the woods in half and get to see our best friend in his bright orange uniform.”

“You make a very convincing argument,” Pidge said with a nod. “Let’s ask our third companion his opinion once he gets here.”

/////

Keith of course agreed, hesitantly, but considering how it would’ve been two to one he was going to lose anyway.

“Don’t worry Keith,” Lance said, playfully hitting him on the back as they stopped in front of Hunk’s work, a local dinner where he worked as a waiter, “Hunk loves it when we visit him at work.”

“Last time we came by I’m pretty sure he contemplated throttling us,” Keith said as Pidge peeked into the window to see where Hunk was.

“Psssh, he wouldn’t do such a thing,” Pidge said, waving her hand at Keith. “Hunk’s a big ol’ teddy bear.”

“Pidge, he literally told us the he was going to throttle us if we ever came back last time we did this!”

“Point,” Pidge said as she headed to the door with no hesitation. “However, there’s practically no one in there!”

Keith followed after Pidge and Lance grumbling the entire time.

Their entrance was signaled by a bell causing Hunk to turn to them with his customer service face. “Hello and welcome to-what the heck are you guys doing here?” The smile was gone and replaced with confusion and probably some slight irritation.

“Buddy!” Lance cried. “We wanted to stop by and see you!”

“You guys are going to see me for like, three hours tonight.”

“Yeah, but you’re going to be in a car so that doesn’t count, unless you’re going to join us on this expedition-“ Lance began before Hunk cut him off at the mere mention of joining them in the woods.

“Fine, okay, but that isn’t exactly a good reason to show up at my work!”

“We figured it be easier for you to pick us up if we were already here,” Keith piped up, because that was the only reason he had even somewhat agreed to come.

Hunk sighed. “Okay fine, but I still have thirty minutes left, so go sit at a table and order something I guess.”

“Of course buddy,” Lance said as he ushered his friends over to a booth and pretended like they were being on their best behavior.

Keith slid into the booth next to Lance and picked up a menu, genuinely looking over the options compared to his two friends who were already plotting.

Hunk appeared at their table a few minutes later with pad and pen in hand. “What do you guys want?”

“An order of fries and a vanilla milkshake please,” Keith said, he seemed to have decided that he was going to make the best of his friend’s plan to harass Hunk.

“Pidge?” Hunk said, turning to her with a raised brow.

“Lemonade please,” Pidge said with her best innocent smile.

“Uh huh,” Hunk says, not buying Pidge’s act. “Lance?”

“Water.”

“Lance-“

“What, Keith and Pidge got something!”

Hunk gave him the look. “So you’re telling me you’re not going to steal half of Keith’s fries?”

“Wha-no,” Lance said, resting his head on his hands and fluttering his eyelashes. “I would never do such a thing.”

“Uh huh,” Hunk said as he finished writing everything down. “Don’t be afraid to tell him no, Keith.”

Keith shrugged, a timid smile on his face. “You know how hard it is to deny him when he pouts.”

“Be strong Keith,” Hunk said before walking away.

A few mere seconds later Lance was turning to him with a serious face. “You’re going to share your fries with me, right?”

Keith let out a huff, not even bothering to argue. “No Lance, why do you think I got them.”

“Awwww, you’re such a good friend Keith,” Lance cooed, throwing his arm behind Keith, as the other boy’s face heated up.

Pidge for once decided to spare Keith some humiliation and threw a sugar packet at Lance’s face.

“Pidge what the heck?!” Lance cried, turning his attention away from Keith, but not moving his arm.

“I dare you to put twenty sugars packets in your water and drink it,” Pidge said as she picked up another packet and aimed it at his face.

“First off Pidge, that’s a waste of perfectly good sugar, and second,” Lance paused for a second to figure out what he was going to say before looking back at Pidge with a wide smile, “And second, that’s a pretty weak dare.”

“Fine,” Pidge said, picking up another packet and throwing it at Lance, “I dare to put twenty packets of salt into your water and drink it.”

“Now that’s a dare Pidgey,” Lance said with a smirk as he began to count out the salt packets.  
Pidge sent Keith a look that screamed, you owe me, while Lance counted blissfully unaware.

“Here’s your drinks,” Hunk said, sending Lance a glare that screamed, if you doing anything stupid I’m going to kill you. Tucking the tray under his arm he turned to Keith and said, “Your fries will be out in a few minutes, and please, please, keep those two out of trouble.”

“Okay,” Keith said before turning to look at the two in question, both ripping open salt packets and pouring them into Lance’s water.

“Hey Keith,” Lance said, noticing that Keith had been watching them and deciding that he couldn’t be left out of this, “I bet I can drink this faster than you can drink that milkshake.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “I highly doubt that Lance, I’m sure your water tastes like ocean right now.”

“And I love the ocean,” Lance said with a wink. “If I didn’t know any better I’d say your backing down from a challenge-“

“Fine,” Keith said, dragging his milkshake closer to him. “Let’s do this.”

Sometimes it was too easy to get Keith riled up.

“On the count of three,” Lance said as he picked up his salt water. “One, two-“ Lance cut off his counting and began downing his drink.

“Cheater!” Keith cried before knocking back his drink and trying to guzzle it to make up for lost time.

Pidge just sat back and enjoyed the display. Lance’s face screwed up from the salt and having to pause every few seconds to cough at the dryness in his mouth, Keith was only slightly better, but his face was beginning to screw up as well, from brain freeze no doubt. Yes, Pidge really did love her idiotic friends.

“I swear to god I can’t leave you all alone in public,” Hunk said as he showed up at the table with the fries, watching in amazed disgust as Keith and Lance tried to choke themselves on their drinks.

“And to think that you actually thought Keith could control us,” Pidge said with a grin. “We all know he’s just as bad as us and has an even worse impulse control than all of us combined.”

“True,” Hunk said with a sigh as he sat down the fries. “Just make sure they don’t die Pidge, I still have, like, twenty minutes.”

“I’ll do my best,” Pidge said, giving him two thumbs up.

It was only a few seconds later that Lance was sputtering and declaring himself the winner while Keith argued that it was rigged.

“You started before me, plus your glass is smaller than mine!”

“Losers weepers,” Lance singsonged, snatching one of Keith’s fries and plopping it his mouth. “Ah thank god, something to get that horrible taste out of my mouth.”

Keith pouted for a few seconds and it looked like he was contemplating taking the fries away from Lance but eventually just gave in and scooted the container between the two of them.

“So, did you bring your monster catching supplies?” Lance asked, causing Keith to go on a whole spiel about everything he had brought and his plans for setting up the trap that lasted until Hunk’s shift was over.

“Come on guys,” Hunk said, twirling his car keys, “Let’s go catch us a Bigfoot.”

/////

“So what exactly is the plan here?” Lance asked as he watched Keith tie all the ropes to the trap onto different tree branches.

“Well the plan for tonight is to wait out here and see if this trap alone is enough to capture him,” Keith said as he tightened the final knot and almost lost his balance on the branch he was precariously perched on, causing Lance to squawk at him in panic only for Keith to brush it off like nothing. “Since this is close to the area we saw him last night there’s a chance he might just walk on by and get caught.”

“And if not?” Lance asked, glancing over at Pidge who was throwing leaves over the part of the trap on the ground.

“We’ll change tactics tomorrow night,” Keith said as he jumped off the branch and landing on his feet.

“Okay first, don’t jump off a tree like that ever again, you’re going to break something, you’re not a cat,” Lance chided, Keith rolled his eyes but nodded his head.

“Okay, I’ll try to be more careful while capture Bigfoot.”

“Don’t sass me,” Lance said, wiggling his finger at him, something he supposed he picked up from his mama. “And second, what do you mean exactly by change tactics?”

“I mean we’ll probably set up a second trap,” Keith said, slinging his bag over his shoulder and heading over to a row of bushes. Depositing his bag behind said bushes he looked back at Pidge and Lance and gestured them over with his head. “Oh, and we’ll split up and try to lure Bigfoot to the trap.”

“We’re gonna what?!” Lance cried as he watched Keith disappear behind the bush.

“Oh come on Lance, it’ll be fun,” Pidge said with a grin before disappearing behind the same bush.

Lance grumbled but followed after his two crazy friends into the bush.

“So where just going to sit here, in the dark, in the scary forest, in complete silence?” Lance asked, watching his two friends squish together to look out through the opening in the bush.

“I mean we can talk,” Keith said. “But if we hear something we’d have to be quiet.”

“Keith there’s some kind of noise every few minutes.”

“I meant a noise that sounds like it could belong to Bigfoot.”

“Guys, shhhh,” Pidge whispered, turning to them and pressing a finger to her lips.

“Did you see something?” Keith asked, looking away from Lance and back through the bush.

“No, I just wanted some peace and quiet,” Pidge said, not even looking their way.

“Rude,” Lance muttered, crossing his arms.

“Listen, I had to witness another one of your crazy competitions, and they’re very rarely a pretty sight. I had to watch you two try to choke yourselves to beat the other and then listen to you pretend to argue about whether or not it was a viable completion.”

“I still won,” Lance said, earning a soft nudge for Keith. “What you want to argue again?”

“Well according to Pidge we only pretend to argue,” Keith said, looking at Lance with a face that should be illegal considering how it made Lance’s heart feel like it was going to jump out of his chest with that little smile, and those eyes!

“All our arguments are very sincere and real,” Lance said with a teasing smile, doing his best to quell the blush rising on his cheeks especially after Keith started to giggle.

“Oh my god please,” Pidge whined, shooting Lance a glare as if it was his fault that they were like this, when technically she started this whole ordeal.

Keith tried to muffle his laughter while Lance tried to calm Pidge down. “Oh come on Pidge, we’re just passing time.”

“I have an idea, how about you two play the quiet game, whoever talks first loses,” Pidge said as she took at her phone, presumably to text Hunk, probably about how they were annoying her and how could he keep leaving her alone with them.

Lance and Keith exchanged a glance, a shrug and then a nod before they agreed they could humor Pidge.

“Okay,” they both said before shutting their mouths.

“Okay to what?” Pidge asked, turning to look at them only for the two of them to stare back at her in complete silence.

“Okay, whatever, you two have fun,” Pidge said with a shrug before turning back to watch the trap.

Keith also turned back to watch the trap, but Lance needed some form of entertainment that wasn’t a trap, and since he was determined to win again he couldn’t talk, so he chose the next best bet.

He knocked his shoulder against Keith’s and waited a few seconds before doing it again.

Keith looked back at him, confusion on his face, but after Lance nudged him again he seemed to have caught on and nudged him back.

They did this back and forth for a few minutes, Lance couldn’t see Keith’s face and he hoped it was the same the other way around. He didn’t need Keith to see his dopey lovesick smile and puppy eyes all because they were playing this little game.

It didn’t take too long before Pidge caught on. “Guys, I can feel your eyes from here please, spare me,” Pidge whispered.

Lance sent Pidge a look that he hoped conveyed “you wanted us to be quiet this is what you get,” before nudging Keith one last time.

However, after Pidge shut down their…could Lance say flirting, was it flirting, Lance kinda hoped it was, but past his whole mini crisis, he was not only getting bored but also getting tired. The nights before he had at least been up walking around, and now he was just sitting around, and those two late nights were starting to get to him and he needed his beauty sleep, all eight hours of it. So maybe his eyes started to feel heavier and he caught himself falling asleep a few times, and maybe his head ended up on Keith’s shoulder and maybe he took a quick nap.

“Hey,” came Keith’s voice, disturbing Lance’s nap. Lance felt a finger poke him, probably Keith’s, “We’re heading out.”

“Did you catch Bigfoot?” Lance asked as he lifted his head up from its resting place, which to his slight embarrassment had been Keith’s shoulder.

“Nah,” Keith said as he stood up and offered Lance his hand.

Lance took it. “So I take it were going with plan b tomorrow, huh?”

“Yeah, it looks like it,” Keith said with a shrug as he looked over at the trap. “Should we just leave it here?”

“It might catch an animal during the day, and then we’d have to deal with that,” Pidge pointed out as she scooped the net up from the ground.

“Maybe we can just throw the net part up on the tree,” Keith said, walking over and helping Pidge pick up the rest of the net before beginning to haul it up to the branches that it was attached to.

Lance hurried over to help when it showed that Pidge was a little bit too small to help Keith haul up the net without climbing the tree too.

“That should keep it,” Keith said, brushing his hands before turning to Lance. “Let’s head back to Hunk, I don’t want to keep you up any longer.”

“Haha.”

“You were out like a light,” Pidge said as they headed back out to the field. “I poked you with a stick at one point and you still didn’t wake up.”

“Keith, how could you let her harass me even in my sleep?”

“Well to be fair, it took me like fifty tries before I actually managed to poke you,” Pidge said with a shrug, throwing Keith a look that felt like he had seen before but wasn’t exactly sure when. “He was very vigilante in making sure I didn’t bother you too much.”

“Pidge, it’s not nice to poke people with sticks,” Keith said with a huff, crossing his arms and not meeting Lance’s eyes, was Keith...was he embarrassed?

“At least I got a full hour of no noise from you two,” Pidge said as they neared the tree line.

“Wait,” Lance said, pausing briefly as remembered their little competition. “I won!”

“What do you mean you won?” Keith asked, he was no longer avoiding Lance’s eyes at least.

“You talked before me,” Lance said, “You woke me up, so therefore I won since you talked first.”

“I was trying to wake you up. I wasn’t going to leave you in the woods!”

“Nope, nuh uh, I won,” Lance said, crossing his arms and smiling proudly. “That means its two to zero, with me as the winner.”

“Lance, you’re getting excited over two wins that you only won due to suspicious circumstances.”

“I didn’t realize you waking me up was suspicious, I mean, you admitted to it-“

“Okay, guys, I’m never suggesting a competition to you two ever again!” Pidge cried, looking like she was about to tear her hair out. “Because I might kill you two if you keep this up!”

“Ugh fine,” Lance said crossing his arms as the car came into view, but Lance decided he was going to have the last word so he leaned closer to Keith and whispered. “I still won.”

Hunk ended up sticking his head out the window and yelling at Keith for causing the scene in the middle of a field, at night no less.

/////

“Lance, where have you been the past few nights?”

It was a simple question really, nothing to stress over, however, what Lance had been doing the past few nights wasn’t exactly normal. He couldn’t just look his mother in the eyes and tell her he was out Bigfoot hunting.

“I know you’re a good boy but I still want to know what’s been causing you to go out so much, mostly you and your friends stay inside.” 

Oh his mother was good, she must’ve noticed the mud or something on his shoes if she knew he wasn’t hanging out at someone’s house, and to add on to her cleverness she had chosen to ask him when he was helping her with the dishes meaning he had no excuse to escape.

“Oh you know, just normal things,” Lance said, instantly hitting himself over the head for such a shady answer.

“Uh huh.” His mother shot him a look he knew well, she did not believe a single word coming out of his mouth. “Is it with your usual friends? Or are you out with new people?”

“Oh please mama, we all know I only hang out with Hunk and the others outside of school,” Lance said, hoping he was coming off as nonchalant as he picked up a plate and began to dry it.

“So are you going out with a girl-“

“What, no mama-“

“A boy? Liza told me that you really like Keith the last time she was over,” his mama said as she scrubbed at a pan, a teasing smile on her face as she looked over at him.

“No mama, I’m not going out with someone,” Lance said, doing his best to get rid of the red threatening to spread to his cheeks.

“Ah, but you didn’t say Liza was wrong,” his mama said, bumping his hip, her voice teasing as his face heated up even more.

“Mama, aren’t you supposed to be interrogating me about where I’ve been the past few nights, not who I have a crush on-“

“So you do have a crush on Keith,” his mama said with a laugh. “He’s a good boy, I approve.”

“Mama!”

“Okay, okay, fine,” she said with another laugh before putting on her best stern face. “Where have you been the past few nights young man?”

“Mama, now you sound like papa-“

“You’re so picky Lance.”

“Okay fine, my friends, Hunk, Pidge and Keith, and I have been-“ Lance paused for a second to think about what he was going to give as an excuse. He didn’t like lying to his mama considering how much she trusted him and vice versa. “We’ve been going out to test Hunk’s robot’s mobility on uneven surfaces and stuff.”

“Oh is that so,” his mama said as she handed Lance the last plate, “Hunk is such a smart boy, I’m glad you all are helping him.”

“Well, that’s what friends are for,” Lance said, trying to duck when his mama reached up to ruffle his hair but giving in to the affection.

“You’re a good friend Lance,” she said, patting his cheek before her smile changed to a more teasing one. “And I hope Keith comes over soon, I want to make sure I talk to him about dating my-“

“Mama, we’re not dating!”

“Oh but I’m sure you will be,” she said, “I know how you are when it comes to your feelings, you don’t like to hide them, and I’m sure that when you tell him, Keith will feel the same.”

“Mama, you don’t know that-“

“Oh no, I do, with my maternal instinct,” she said, taping her head.

“Mama-“

“Plus I’ve seen the way that boy looks at you,” his mama’s eyes softened. “So I’m sure that once you’re ready to tell him how you feel you’ll get the answer that you want.”

Lance sighed; it was hard to argue with her, especially when she got sappy even though he hoped that what she said was true. “Thanks mama.”

“Anytime.”

“Oh by the way, I’m going out again tonight-“

“I’m beginning to doubt this robot story.”

“We have to test it out on hills now.”

His mama let out a sigh. “Okay, just be home before curfew.”

“Of course mama,” he said before kissing her on the cheek. “I’ll be home by ten.”

/////

Lance wished he had known what was going to happen before he left that night. First off, he probably would’ve told his mama he’d be home closer to eleven, and secondly, he might have brought a flashlight or maybe just not have left at all (except that was highly unlikely since he never really bailed on his friends unless he was like, dying.)

The night had started off fairly normal, considering the whole catching Bigfoot thing. They set up two different traps this time and in true horror movie fashion they had split up. Pidge stayed at the original trap, she would just be sitting there like the previous night, while Keith and Lance headed out into the woods with no light other than the moon and tried to find Bigfoot themselves and lead it to one of the traps.

Lance had expected it to be rather uneventful, just the two of them walking around in the dark, probably jumping at almost every noise some small animal made. Lance still wasn’t sure he bought the whole Bigfoot thing, even after Friday night. It had probably been a bear or something, though Lance wasn’t sure if he felt any better about a bear being in the woods than Bigfoot.

They had walked in relative silence for at least an hour before something happened.

“Lance, stop breathing so loudly,” Keith whispered out of nowhere. “I’m sure Bigfoot can hear you from miles away.”

“I’m not breathing loudly mullet,” Lance whispered back, and it was true, why would he be out of breath if all he had been doing was walking around. “Maybe it’s you!”

“It’s not me!”

“Well it’s not me either!”  
“Wait, so if it’s not you, or me,” Keith said slowly, pointing his finger between Lance and him before looking at Lance with wide eyes, “Who is it?”

That was a good question, one that Lance really didn’t really want an answer to, but once again, in true horror movie fashion, he and Keith slowly turned their heads around to look behind them, and sure enough, it was like every horror movie.

A familiar, tall and hairy figure was a few feet behind them, as if it had been following them slowly, but once it realized it had been spotted it let out a roar that couldn’t be human, no way no how.

“Okay, I think it’s time to run!” Lance yelled as Keith grabbed his wrist and took off sprinting.

Lance could hear the creature’s footsteps loudly crashing behind them, snapping sticks and sending leaves flying, and with each passing second it seemed to be getting louder and louder.

“Come on, come on,” Keith yelled, jerking Lance and him around a tree in what Lance hoped was the direction of one of their traps.

The sharp turn had taken the creature by surprised and it gave them a little extra ground as it tried to slow down to follow them, but seconds later it seemed to be right back on top of them.

“Oh my god how much farther to the trap!” Lance cried as he saw a fallen tree in their path.

“I don’t know,” Keith said between each deep breath, the two jumping over the tree with some ease, although Lance was pretty sure Keith’s foot almost clipped it, maybe running while holding hands wasn’t the smartest thing but it made Lance feel a whole lot better at least.

“Well I don’t think I can keep running for too much longer!!”

“Just hold out a little longer,” Keith said as they came up to a clearing.

Lance was trying, but his chest and throat burned and his legs felt like lead and he really felt like his feet where about to give out on him.

They pushed past the bushes and crashed into the clearing, both literally and figuratively. Lance tripped on god knows what, a root or rock or something and went crashing down, and due to his and Keith’s interlocked hands he brought him down too.

“Crap, crap, crap,” Lance muttered under his breath like a mantra as he and Keith scrambled to get up. The two of them practically dragged each other to the other side of the clearing and plastered themselves behind a tree, taking deep gulps of air as they tried to calm their hearts and ease the pain in their lungs.

“Do you-“ Lance took a deep breath. “Do you think he’s still following us?”

“Let-let me check,” Keith said, taking a deep breath before sticking his head around the side of the tree.

Lance couldn’t hear anything but that didn’t mean that they weren’t still being followed.

“I don’t see anything,” Keith said, pressing his head against the tree. “I think it’s all clear.”

“Okay,” Lance said before letting out a deep breath. “Good.”

They hid behind the tree for a few more seconds before coming back out into the clearing.

“Man, we were so close to catching Bigfoot,” Keith said, shaking his head sadly.

“Listen, Keith, buddy, mullet,” Lance said as he placed a hand on Keith’s shoulder, “I too am disappointed, but I’m a little bit more enthused about not becoming a Bigfoot snack.”

“I think the two of us would be more like a meal-“

“Keith, now is not the time for your humor, we kinda just escaped from something that wanted to eat us.”

“I wasn’t trying to be funny, I was just making an observation,” Keith said just as the sound of a twig snapping drew their attention back to the darkness of the woods.

“Did you-“ Lance began before he was cut off by the sound of footsteps.

“Lance!” Keith cried, grabbing onto Lance’s arms and pointing off to the side of them.

Lance turned in the direction that Keith was pointing and about screamed when he saw a dark figure quickly approaching them.

“Crap, crap, crap, crap,” Lance yelled as he and Keith backed into a tree, Lance’s hand scrambling to grip Keith’s, he was frozen and he was pretty dang sure that he couldn’t start sprinting again, he still hadn’t fully caught his breath and his feet were rooted to the ground.

Lance could hear Keith cursing next to him as he pressed himself against the tree wishing it would absorb him as the figure got closer and closer. Squeezing his eyes shut, Lance gripped Keith’s hand harder as he waited for whatever was going to happen next.

Lance wasn’t sure what he expected, teeth, claws, slobber? But they never come, and in their place the sound of something snapping sounded through the air.

“Lance oh my god look,” Keith said, pulling at Lance’s hand until Lance willed himself to open one of his eyes. 

The sight he saw was one of their traps holding a squirming figure in it, they seemed to have luckily missed when they had entered the clearing.

Keith let out a whoop next to him, letting go of Lance’s hand and heading over to the trap.

Lance followed hesitantly after him, scared of what he would seem but his fear quickly turned into confusion when he realized that the noises sounded more human than animal.

“-cking kids, trying to check on them and I get capture what the fu-“

That was definitely not Bigfoot in their trap.

“Oh my god I’m so sorry,” Keith yelled as he raced over to the trap with Lance close at his heels.

They had not caught Bigfoot; instead they had caught an angry old man who looked about ready to strangle him. 

Lance apologized profusely while Keith shimmed up into the tree and undid the trap.

“Oh my god what did you two do?” came a new, but very familiar voice.

Lance turned to see Pidge at the edge of the clearing, watching them with her arms crossed.

“We may have caught the wrong thing,” Lance offered as the trap undid itself and fell open.

“And what the hell where you idiots even trying to catching?!” the old man cried, waving his arms at them.

“Ummm,” the three of them said, glancing between each other before back at the old man.

“A fox?” Keith offered with a strained smile, the poor boy couldn’t lie very well.

“I swear,” the old man said, shaking his head as he brushed off his pants. “I try to find out why there are kids out yelling in the woods in the middle of the night and I end up getting punished for being a good samaritan. I just had to check to see if some teens were getting murdered,” the old man grumbled as he looked between the three. “Kids, get your trap and head home, you ain’t going to catch no foxes, or whatever the hell it is you’re trying to catch.”

“Sorry sir,” Lance said, trying to smooth everything over before the man threatened to call the police, or worse, his mama, “But you really did scare us when you just appeared out of nowhere and stared chasing us.”

“I didn’t chase you, I found you in the clearing here,” the man said, looking at Lance with confusion on his face. “Something else must’ve been chasing you two.”

“What?” Keith said and Lance could hear the gears turning in his head.

“Listen kids, just get your stuff and head home before your parents start to worry.”

“Okay sir, thanks for checking on us,” Lance said as he grabbed an edge of the trap and handed it to Keith.

The man grumbled but turned around and walked out of the clearing.

“What was chasing us then?” Keith muttered as the three of them began to fold up the trap.

“Maybe it was bear or something,” Lance said with a shrug. “There have been sightings of them before.”

“I guess,” Keith said as he shoved the trap into his bag before they headed to the other one.

“Whatever was chasing you guys sure was loud,” Pidge said as she looked between the two of them. “I could hear it running after you along with your yelling. That’s why I left my trap and went to find you since I figured you had found Bigfoot.”

“Maybe I just imagined everything,” Keith said with a sigh. “It probably was all just normal things that I blew out of proportion.”

“So you’re admitting that Bigfoot isn’t real?” Lance asked.

“What, no way!” Keith said, shaking his head. “I’m just saying that maybe everything we saw was just something with a normal explanation.”

“That’s a first, Keith admitting that maybe something wasn’t supernatural,” Pidge said with a laugh as they came up on the second trap.

“I’m just trying to be realistic,” Keith said with a sigh. “I guess you should text Hunk and tell him-“

Keith suddenly stopped talking and Lance was about to ask him if Bigfoot had caught his tongue when he saw what had caused Keith’s silence. The second trap had been sprung, but whatever had been caught had ripped itself out.

“I swear it wasn’t like that when I left,” Pidge said as they ran over to the trap.

Keith ran his hand over the damage his eyes scanning the damage while Lance frantically looked around to see if whatever had gotten caught was still there.

“Do you think-“ Keith began before Lance cut him off.

“Nope, nope, no take backs Keith, this has a very simple explanation too,” Lance said as he tugged at the trap. “Don’t overthink it, besides, I don’t think we can come back here.”

“Yeah I-I guess you’re right,” Keith said with a sign. “I guess this is a mystery I’ll have to live with.”

/////

“Oh my god are you guys okay?!” Hunk cried, almost swerving the car off the road after they had told Hunk what had happened.

“I mean, yeah,” Lance said with a shrug. “Other than Keith, who’s devastated that he can’t keep looking for Bigfoot.”

“I’m coming to terms with it,” Keith called from the back.

“Why didn’t you guys call or text me or something!”

“Well we were running,” Lance said with a shrug. “Not like we could whip out a phone and shoot you a quick text while running for our lives.”

“I didn’t think it was that big of deal,” Pidge supplied as her answer.

“I swear, next time you all go out adventuring or whatever I’m coming with you,” Hunk muttered as he pulled up to Keith’s house.

“Aww, you’re going to come with us next time,” Lance cooed as Keith opened the door.

“Don’t make me regret this Lance,” Hunk said before calling good bye after Keith.

“Bye Keith,” Lance said sticking himself out of the window again.

Keith shot him a look over his shoulder before his face softened and he raised his hand in a little wave. “Thanks again for helping me out Lance!”

“Anytime,” Lace yelled as Hunk pulled away.

“You okay up there Lance?” Pidge asked from the back, she was obviously trying not to laugh.

“Yeah,” Lance squeaked as he buried himself further in the seat.

“You know now he’s going to ask you to come with him on all his little adventures, right?”

“I think I’ll be okay with that.”

“Love struck,” Pidge singsonged as Lance’s face heated up even more.

/////

“Honey.”

“Yes dear.”

“Our neighbor, Keith, just got dropped off by his friends.”

“Why are you keeping tabs on our neighbors?”

“He came to me asking about something he saw going into our backyard one night.”

“And?”

“I think we need to tell your brother to stop visiting and leave town for a bit.”


End file.
